YARMOUTH -- For those who were there for the first one, it may be hard to believe it was two decades ago, but that’s how long it’s been since the Yarmouth Town and County Sports Heritage Association held its first Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

With the latest group of honourees inducted during a May 6 dinner at the Rodd Grand Hotel, the Hall of Fame now has 20 years’ worth of inductees – individuals and teams who made their mark on the Yarmouth area’s sports history.

Those entering the hall in 2017 include Dave Sisco, a Special Olympian who twice won powerlifting gold at the national level and who had some record-breaking lifts along the way, and Imrich Kiraly, a former elite-level decathlete who in recent years has won numerous medals in masters athletics.

The 1972 Yarmouth bantam B hockey team became the first Yarmouth hockey club to win a provincial championship.

Five years later, in 1977, a group of young Yarmouth ball players captured the Nova Scotia beaver B baseball title.

Nearly four decades after that, in 2015, École secondaire de Par-en-Bas was triumphant at the Division 3 high school hockey provincials.

All three of these teams are now part of the Yarmouth area’s sports Hall of Fame.

Aside from the actual induction ceremony, the Hall of Fame banquet each year includes the presentation of the Nate Bain memorial award for Yarmouth County’s male and female athletes of the year. Distance runner and triathlete Bryan Hipson and hockey player Allie Munroe are this year’s recipients, but neither was present to accept the award in person.

The evening included as well the presentation of the Jim Hatfield memorial award for baseball, which this year went to Nash Crowell, who had an outstanding season in 2016..

The idea of establishing a Hall of Fame for local sports came from the founders of the Yarmouth area’s sports heritage association, who held their first induction ceremony on a snowy evening in March 1998.

Organizers subsequently moved the ceremony to the spring – so snow wouldn’t be an issue – and now, two decades later, the association continues its efforts to recognize individuals and teams for their sporting accomplishments.